Russia: economic indicators decline slowed down

The decline in Russia’s key economic indicators has slowed down due to implementation of the government’s supportive measures, though they are still in the negative zone, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.

“The situation on global financial markets is still unfavorable for us. Though our key economic indicators have narrowed losses they’re still in the negative zone”, he said, adding that “the total macroeconomic and budget stability persists, price growth has slowed down significantly to less than 4% since the start of this year, which is almost twice as low as in the first half of 2015”.

According to Medvedev, the labor market has seen positive changes, and “a number of sectors of the economy are in a fairly good condition”.

Speaking about future efforts to support the real sector of the economy, PM said that “a sustainable economy cannot rely on sale of commodities only” so the government “is aiming its efforts at supporting industrial non-resource exports and at enhancing the innovative activity”. (TASS/Business World Magazine)